Formula One: Belgian Grand Prix – live | Formula One

22/44 Perez pits, letting Verstappen come through, and then puts on hard tyres. Problem solved, though Norris on on Verstappen’s tail

21/44 Russell overtakes Perez, and that puts him in fourth, and Red Bull now have to ask Verstappen to be allowed past Perez.

20/44 Hamilton waits on Sainz pitting, which hasn’t happened yet. The Ferrari will go in at the end of this lap.

19/44 Footage inside Ricciardo’s car shows him doing up to 300 km/h as he chases Alex Albon, a battle of 10th v ninth. The top eight all have the possibilities.

18/44 Russell is in front of Verstappen and the champion is being chased by Norris, the fastest lap at the moment.

17/44 Verstappen asks whether he should go for it. And his team give him the nod.

Sainz has a wobble.

15/44 Norris’s tyre change is imminent. Verstappen is told the medium tyre will be ok for him later in the race.

14/44 Piastri sets a fastest lap. The McLarens are flying these days. Good to see. He’s chasing Leclerc. Verstappen is in eighth again, Russell up ahead of him.

13/44 Leclerc says he’d prefer to go long rather than undercut on pits but still ends up pitting. Sainz, the other Ferrari, now leads, Norris is second, Alonso third and Hamilton fourth. Verstappen is lapping quicker than anyone.

Hamilton pits, so does Perez

Verstappen pits

10/44 Hamilton – two seconds clear – is making it known his tyres are beginning to decay. Verstappen is still behind Norris. The top eight are covered by nine seconds.

9/44 Lots of pitting, soft tyres being replaced. Oscar Piastri is offered option on tyres – he goes for a two-stop strategy.

8/44 Hulkenberg goes into the pits for Haas, and changes tyres. Other teams will be looking at him in the hards. Also on the hard, Sainz, and he’s all over the back of Russell in fifth.

7/44 Norris in seventh, is doing a good job in holding up Verstappen. The Mercedes has a jump on the Red Bull, and there’s a tyre conundrum, with RB not having two sets of hard tyres.

6/44 Zhou Guanyu looks to be out. Perez is complaining about his battery.

5/44 Sergio Perez is not making much of an impression, the suggestion being his battery is weakened. He’s in third.

4/44 Zhou Guanyu is back in the race. Hamilton, setting a fastest lap, flies away. The gap is only just over five seconds to Verstappen. Time to use all that open road.

Lewis Hamilton leads!

2/44 Verstappen overtakes Albon and is in eighth. Norris overtakes Sainz but immediately loses his spot. Verstappen is already on Norris’ tail. But which of the Red Bull or the McLaren has the pace?

Lights out at Spa, we are go!

Off they go on the formation lap. It’s a hot day in the Ardennes region after all that rain. The talk, as ever, is of soft and hard tyres.

Lots of winners this season – seven – it’s far from the procession we expected at the start of the campaign. Verstappen has never won from 11th on the grid.

Martin Brundle is on his pit walk. Mark Webber, former driver, has high hopes for his client, Oscar Piastri. Anze Kopitar, LA Kings hockey legend is there, too. McLaren seem confident. Merc’s Bono sets aside worries about water coming off the back of their cars on the parade lap a few minutes back. There’s cup of ice on Sergio Perez’s car. Why? We’re not told. Christian Horner “we’re going to do our darnedest” on a Verstappen charge. Perez? “Best thing he can do is overtake at the fifth turn and bugger off.” “Lando Norris says he is “excited”. And here comes the Belgian anthem. It sounds a bit like Lloyd Webber’s A Different Suitcase In A Different Hall.

From 2016, a short video to show why Spa is one of the quickest, most beloved racetracks of all.

Despite being 11th, the fear is that Max Verstappen’s Red Bull’s new engine will blast through the pack.

Lando Norris: “We are in a good spot but Red Bull are clearly the quickest. It will be tough. Max is going to come through pretty quickly and most likely [we will] be fighting him for the win, and I’m sure he’ll be a threat for us at some point.”

Last time out, there was a soap opera taking place among the McLaren team.

Driver Standings

• 1. Max Verstappen – 265 points

• 2. Lando Norris – 189 points

• 3. Charles Leclerc – 162 points

• 4. Carlos Sainz – 154 points

• 5. Oscar Piastri – 149 points

• 6. Lewis Hamilton – 125 points

• 7. Sergio Perez – 124 points

• 8. George Russell – 116 points

• 9. Fernando Alonso – 45 points

• 10. Lance Stroll – 24 points

• 11. Nico Hulkenberg – 22 points

• 12. Yuki Tsunoda – 22 points

• 13. Daniel Ricciardo – 11 points

• 14. Oliver Bearman – 6 points

• 15. Pierre Gasly – 6 points

• 16. Kevin Magnussen – 5 points

• 17. Alex Albon – 4 points

• 18. Esteban Ocon – 3 points

• 19. Zhou Guanyu – 0 points

• 20. Logan Sargeant – 0 points

• 21. Valtteri Bottas – 0 points

Giles Richards’ report on qualifying.

Preamble